Archive for February, 2013

Testing for the 2013 Formula 1 season began earlier this morning at the Circuito de Jerez in Spain. This is a stable year in terms of regulations, not much has changed since 2012. This [should] mean a closer field and some desperate development avenues for the Big 5. Red Bull is [still] clearly the team to beat coming of of their 3rd straight Constructors Championship & WDC after a down-to-the-wire finish at Interlagos in Brazil.

The offseason proved to be the biggest driver shakeup in recent memory, the most sizable of which was Lewis Hamilton making a shock exit at McLaren and forcing Michael Schumacher at Mercedes into his 2nd [and hopefully final] retirement. This inevitably caused a ripple effect to many of the teams and drivers below scrambling to fill – and find – seats, and left one of my favorite drivers on the grid, Kamui Kobayashi, hung out to dry sadly. How all the big money in Japan let this happen, I don’t know. Hope to see him back next year, maybe with a Honda sticker on his helmet.

With some interesting packaging choices and a new Pirelli tire, I’m personally hugely anxious to see how everyone’s form fares over the next few weeks. All teams will be in attendance, the only caveat being that Williams will be running their 2012 spec car in order to finish preseason preperations in time for the next test in Barcelona. Missing from the grid this year is perennial backmarker HRT who folded at the conclusion of last season. Rumour has it that some idiots here stateside are looking to buy in, however, and if that’s truly the case I’ve got a bridge to sell them as well…

Check out all the 2013 challengers after the jump.

(more…)

Lovely saturated sounds coming from Seagram Murals, I hope to hear more from this delicate Australian.

Jacob 2-2 is back with his signature PBS funk, soo much detail, you’ll need to put it on repeat for at least an hour to be able to take in all the magic.

No Body is back at it, this time with a dose of psychedelia and beautiful grit.

A flooring ambient release coming soon from John Beltran, taking all this atmospheric UK juke into the heavens.

If you’re even remotely serious about editing photos on your phone, Photoforge 2 will quickly become your mainstay. Here’s why:

It’s the best, fully-featured photo editor for mobile.

After years of trying every photo editing app across Android and iOS, I have yet to find anything better. Like Photoshop, it gives you full control over your image with features you thought you could only get on desktop. It’s not for quick edits, so if you’re in one-stop filter kind of mood, or less familiar with terms like “adjusting curves” or “soft light,” Afterglow is probably the way to go. If you are familiar with those terms, it’s easy to spend hours fiddling away on the go just as you would in front of a bigger screen at home. Just be careful not to get car sick.

Layers, layers, layers.

If anything, layer support is what sets this app apart from the rest – you can easily overlay other photos, create 50% Gray layers to add film grain, textures & vignettes, or drag to re-arrange layers as you please. It even supports layer masking, so you can edit-out imperfections or localize adjustments similar to how you would in Photoshop.

Powerful color curves.

Yep, same color adjustments as you would expect in popular photo editing software for desktop. In fact, many of the Instagram filters (Rise, Amaro, Sierra, Willow) were initially designed with this app, using this feature.

You can always undo with the edit history list. 

As project management goes, Photoforge 2 preserves every stage of your edit across multiple projects. The one downside is how much space this takes up on your phone. Since we’re dealing with multiple versions of many full-resolution photos, this app will quickly become the heaviest app you have installed. Be sure to delete the photo projects you won’t be revisiting.

Grab the app for iPhone & iPad on iTunes for $3.99: Photoforge 2 [iTunes Link]